Unlike Robert E. Lee’s campaign, our journey continued North into New York. Our goal was to see our friends, Patrick and Lynn in the western part of the state.

On the way, we found ourselves in Corning – yes, that Corning of glass fame. We took the time for 2 short day tours and were thoroughly impressed. Dianne being a glass artist herself never passes up a glass destination and Corning’s Museum of Glass has to be one of the top sites in the world. We learned the history of Corning and Stueben and glass in the United States. The museum offers many demonstrations of glass blowing, breaking glass, flameworking glass and fiber optical glass. There is a permanent collection of glass art from 3500BC to present as well as temporary displays of glass art on loan from various collections. The architecture of the museum is also stunning including a recently added pure white building reminiscent of 2001, A Space Odessey. The museum offers classes in all forms of glass art from a weekend to multi-week. We would both love to come back and take a class.

After arriving at Patrick and Lynn’s home in Youngstown NY on the Niagara River, we toured the Erie Canal town of Medina. In addition to the canal we visited the Medina Model Railroad Museum housed in the 1905 freight depot of the York Central Railroad. It is a huge 204 ft by 14 ft HO scale layout depicting many scenes of the area. Well done! The museum also owns several pieces of rolling stock and historic locomotives. They offer excursions much of the year.